Caught in the Shock wave
Image by Yoona Jung
Trump’s victory reverberated around campus. We tried our best to document the tremors.
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Sam Robbins ‘26
Walking into the dining hall on Wednesday, Nov. 7th, you could taste the anxiety in the air. Whether you watched folks commiserating with friends over waffles or walking to the dish belt with a pep in their step, it was plain to see that something had changed.
Coming into election night, the polls painted the picture of a divided nation. They reported a complete tossup between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. As the results trickled in, many waited with trepidation. Who would the nation choose: Trump, who made big promises about the economy and an immigration crackdown, survived two assassination attempts and two impeachments, was convicted of 32 felonies, was found by Congress to be responsible for an incursion of armed civilians into the nation’s capital, and who appealed strongly to voters dissatisfied with the current direction of the country; or Harris, whose campaign centered on abortion rights and the flaws of her opponent, but who carried the weight of the dysfunction of the Biden administration and many unpopular progressive issues like gender-transitioning care for minors? For many swing voters nationwide, the election was a choice between the lesser of two evils, while for countless other Americans, the choice could not be clearer.
Here on campus, a recent survey found most students favored Harris, with nearly 80% saying they would vote for her. When Trump came away with a decisive victory on election night—winning all seven swing states, and helping Republicans flip the Senate and defend a narrow majority in the House of Representatives—shock, disappointment, and grim acceptance were felt across campus. When Lamplighter ediotrs collected comments around campus, many students said they were caught off guard by the resultes: one said he was “appalled.” “I am just so confused. He is literally a sex offender,” said another. Others were less surprised: “I mean, honestly, I knew this was going to happen. I feel like we all did,” said one senior.
Many of those upset by Harris’s defeat were concerned about the fate of the issues she stood for. Under Trump, climate reforms and abortion access have a particularly uncertain future. At a “climate grief” meeting organized by the Climate Justice Club, Maeve Tholen, class of ‘25, was worried that the president-elect “doesn’t have a clear plan [about the environment.]” Her comment reflects a broader confusion in the media about what the president-elect actually thinks about the climate crisis.
In the past, Trump has called “global warming” a “hoax,” claiming once on the platform formerly known as Twitter, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” At other times, he has acknowledged the existence of climate change but claimed it was not “man made.” During his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, an international framework for moving away from fossil fuels, claiming the treaty “hurt Americans.”
Under his second administration, Trump has promised to leave the Paris Agreement once more and said he will reinstate oil drilling under the sprawling Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. He has scarcely talked about climate issues on the trail though, and it’s speculated that his involvement with Elon Musk, who owns the electric car manufacturer Tesla, might shift his views on climate change.
Because Trump’s positions on climate issues are non-existent at best, Xela Nestel, ‘27, also present at the CJC meeting, saw his victory as a sign of the nation’s apathy towards the environment; “How can we show people that this is important?” she wondered aloud.
In the wake of the election, conversations about abortion access popped up around campus, too. Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly denied he would sign a national abortion ban. Abortion rights activists, however, don’t buy this. Many people in the president-elect’s inner circle are avidly pro-life, and while he might not defy his campaign promise outright, some worry that he may start enforcing the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old law banning the mailing of abortion-related items and contraceptives, or effectively ban abortion by some other means.
Around campus, many students, both male and female, were concerned about the future of women’s rights in the US. Abortion was among those concerns, but some students felt like Trump’s second term has broader implications for what it means to be a woman in America. In May, the president-elect was found liable for rape. The fact that he has since been able to return to power displays to some just how much powerful men can get away with in this country. One junior girl commented, “I’m concerned about the example he’s setting for men, encouraging them to rape people and steal money. This is telling men that they can get whatever they want if they use force.” Avery Schneider, a senior, had a similar concern. “I feel like the priorities of the American people are very warped, especially because a convicted felon [and] rapist has been elected to office a second time.”
Not everyone at NMH is down on Trump, though. One junior, who asked to remain anonymous, was in high spirits after the results came in. “I am very proud of my [elected] president,” they said. They went on to describe Trump as “the best president in US history.” This student didn’t shy away from the fact that Trump is a polarizing figure, saying, “My concern is how our population will adapt to his changes and his type of governance due to the large percentage of the population who voted against him.”
Many students simply weren’t very invested in the election. “I just don’t really care,” said one student. “I don’t feel like I am in the right position to have an opinion on the election,” said another. On Thursday, Nov 14th, I pulled Reese Spiro, class of ‘25, away from a table with 12 other boys. Reese was not apathetic—he made clear that he wasn’t thrilled about Trump’s victory—but he said he tries to keep politics out of his social life. When I asked him how his friends felt about the president elect, he said, “I think we have a lot of people with differing opinions and different political views, but we manage to stay pretty close and not really let it affect us.” His commitment to put politics aside stood in stark contrast to some students who spoke of “unfollowing all the Trump supporters I know.”
Back in the dining hall on the morning of Nov. 8th, I sat down with Carolina Diaz, a senior from New Jersey. Around her was strewn the evidence of a productive morning: notebooks, textbooks, and a towering water bottle defending her breakfast position from all sides. When I asked her about the previous night’s results, she quickly turned the focus to local politics. “There’s so much you can do on a local level,” she said, going on to wonder how much could be accomplished if all the despair felt by young Democrats was channeled into grassroots activism. She said a lot of progressives “feel like they have no power … like everything is doomed” in the wake of the election. “The enemy is that feeling,” she says. While many other students worried about degradation of democracy, Carolina was acutely aware of the democratic powers still at her disposal. “The basis of democracy is that we can still organize, we can still protest, we can still vote in the next elections and we can still write to people.” For her, the game was far from over.
Whether you love him, hate him, or couldn’t care less, Donald Trump has made clear he is going to change a lot about the United States, with the impacts of his administration being felt around the world as well. The true implications of a second Trump term are impossible to know at this stage, but Republican control of the House, Senate, and Presidency means Trump has a rare opportunity to enact lasting and powerful change through the legislature.
Secluded in the woodlands of Massachusetts, the only state whose counties voted unanimously for Harris, our campus offers some protection from both the potential victories and the failures of Trump and his MAGA movement. In our hyper-connected world, however, no one will be able to fully escape the effects of his presidency. It is clear, based on the thoughtful responses of our diverse student body, that here at NMH we can take a constructive forward-looking approach to the challenges the future might hold.
